North America’s two largest wholesalers of packaged ice, Reddy Ice and Arctic Glacier have been courting each other for years, but it wasn’t until they both filed for bankruptcy this year that a merger became realistic.

Packaged-ice maker Reddy Ice Holdings Inc. is in the final stages of preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a plan to hand ownership to a hedge fund holding the company's debt, said people familiar with the matter.

Reddy Ice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: FRZ) announced today that its common stock will be quoted on the OTCQB™ Marketplace beginning Thursday, December 29, 2011. Trading on the NYSE and the Company's trading symbol "FRZ" will be discontinued as of the...

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Headquartered in Dallas, TX. Reddy Ice Holdings manufactures and distributes packaged ice products and bottled water in the United States. In 2006, the company had two segments: Ice Products (96% of revenues in 2006) and Non-Ice Products & Services (4%). The company sold the Non-Ice business in September 2007. The Ice Products segment manufactures and distributes packaged ice in cube, half-moon, cylindrical, crushed, and blocked forms, primarily under Reddy Ice brand name. Reddy Ice is the largest supplier of packaged ice in the United States. The company primarily sells directly to supermarket chains, mass merchants, and convenience stores, such as Albertson's, Circle-K, Exxon Mobil, Food Lion, Kroger, 7-Eleven, and Wal-Mart. The company also sells to wholesale ice and food distributors, bars, stadiums, airlines, government agencies, construction companies, resorts, restaurants, agricultural buyers, and other commercial customers. As of March 9, 2007 the company owned or operated 63 ice manufacturing facilities, 59 distribution centers, approximately 3,000 ice factories, five refrigerated warehouses, and a bottled water plant located in 31 states and the District of Columbia. The company has an aggregate daily ice manufacturing capacity of about 17,000 tons.

The majority of sales are directed to supermarket chains, mass merchants, and convenience stores. In 2006, 45% of sales (in tons) were derived from supermarket and mass merchant chains, 28% from convenience and petroleum chain stores, 13% from distributors, and 14% from other channels. The percentage of total volume (in tons) sold to national and regional supermarket, mass merchant and convenience stores has increased from 54% in 2002 to 58% in 2006. The company's primary ice product is cubed ice, packaged in small bags (typically seven and ten pounds), which are sold principally to convenience stores and supermarkets. Significant amounts of medium bags of cubed ice (16 to 20 pounds) and ten-pound block bags are sold to the same convenience stores and supermarkets.

On August 15, 2003, Packaged Ice, Inc. merged with Cube Acquisition Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reddy Ice Holdings, Inc. Packaged Ice was renamed Reddy Ice Group, Inc., and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reddy Ice Holdings, which was established in May 2003. In August 2005, Reddy Ice Holdings completed its initial public offering of 11,730,000 shares at a price of $18.50 per share. Bear, Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, and CIBC were the lead underwriters of the offering.